I was curious this evening about ostriches. Specifically, whether ostriches really bury their heads in the sand to avoid facing things. This is what I found: “Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand…When threatened, ostriches run away.”

I guess the same thing can be said of some organizations when it comes to listening to their customers. They don’t exactly bury their heads in the sand–they just run away or abandon an avenue for customer feedback.

I recently read an article about a decision that a major airline made to drop a customer call center that took compliments or complaints after a flight, telling customers to send a letter or e-mail instead. The airline said it would stop publishing its customer relations phone number, which will be turned off altogether at the end of April. A spokeswoman for the airline said that the company is able to respond better to customers who write, since they often include more detail, making it possible to provide a more specific response. “We did a lot of research, we looked into it, and people who e-mail or write us are more satisfied with our responses,” she said.

I’m not saying that the above statement is false. In fact, those who wrote or sent an e-mail may have been more satisfied with the responses they received. But after reading the article I asked myself why the aforementioned customers would be more satisfied with those answers vs. a phone call.

I thought about my own role as a director of customer care, as well as the last complaint that I personally made to a company as a consumer/customer. Take a walk with me for a minute…

Do you recall the last thing that really annoyed or upset you about a product or service? Why do I immediately jump to a complaint? Well, because let’s be real – Most people don’t have the same sense of urgency when it comes to paying a compliment as they do in getting a problem or concern that they have resolved. I’d also like to point out (as a director of customer care) that when customers complain, it’s one of the best opportunities to increase their loyalty and engagement–as long as the company that the customer is dealing with responds promptly and positively to their complaint.

After all, put yourself in your customer’s place. When you’re upset and ready to “vent your spleen” what do you reach for first? Your keyboard? Your pen? Your phone? Etc. I know which one I’d go for first, but I’ll get into that in a minute.  

My point is that I’m willing to bet that if I took a survey asking which form of communication people would prefer to voice a complaint, I’d get a number of different answers. Because each individual is different, their choice for communication is different. But what is critical is that a customer has a choice! By removing one of those choices (no matter what the justification) you cut off a way for a certain group of customers to communicate with you–many of whom can provide you with valuable feedback. You also send a message to your customers that you don’t care enough about them to listen to them–in whatever way they choose to communicate with you. You can tell your  customers that they’ll provide you with more valuable feedback by communicating differently with you, but you’re telling and asking *them* to change (i.e. that’s not good for building loyal and engaged customers) instead of taking a look at what your business needs to do and/or how your business needs to change to better meet your customers’ needs and resolve their concerns.  

O.K. Back to the last time that I personally had an issue with a company. What did I do? I picked up the phone and called first. I didn’t feel like composing a letter or sending an email. I wanted another human being to hear me and acknowledge I was being heard. By the way, I never got a hold of anyone to register my complaint, so I then composed an e-mail to them to let them know that they needed to contact me to avoid losing my business. I haven’t heard anything back yet (it’s been several days).

Oh and by the way,it was an airline.

Did anyone just hear the sound of a running (and flying) ostrich?

Kevin Mellander
Director, Customer Care

But things are different now. One could say that we have reached the tipping point where companies must incorporate communities into their marketing communications and public relations strategies.

And that is why I say: Hold the bus!

We should rephrase the above by replacing the word “incorporate” with “consider.” We absolutely must consider communities in our marketing communications strategies, but we should analyze this carefully.

Analysis Point 1: How much capacity does my company have to listen and then respond to our customers? How many people, processes, and technologies (i.e. your capacity) are you willing to put in place to listen to your customers, both by soliciting their feedback as well as letting them come to you unsolicited with their thoughts and concerns? Has this capacity (i.e. the amount of people, process, and technology) risen proportionally with the size and complexity of your company? Perhaps more importantly, has your capacity to respond been increased proportionally with your capacity to listen? When “considering” communities, are you willing to add capacity to your communications machine to adequately support adding a community emphasis to your marketing communications strategy? If you cannot add resources, but are determined to add community to your communications mix, you better prepare to either diminish the capacity of other efforts, or fail.

Analysis Point 2: Is your listening and response capacity proportional with effectiveness? For example, one of my wife’s and my favorite movies is the “Hunt for Red October” starring Sean Connery. One of the great analogies in that movie is “They are pinging away at their sonar but at almost 30 knots they could run over my daughter’s stereo and not hear it.” Are you listening to so many customers on so many transactions that you cannot understand not just what your customers are saying, but what they really feel? We must analyze the role of all communication tools in the above context. Would adding community resources to your communication efforts increase you ability to understand your customers’ and employees’ problems more effectively?

Keep an eye out for my next blog in this series, in which I’ll go over existing communities and willingness.

John Epeneter, VP of Product Management, Allegiance